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Friday, November 29 • 2013
Vol. 6 • Issue 44
Two Nelson atom squads fall in tourney See Page 21 280 Baker Street Nelson BC (250)
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Tradition of gift gathering continues See Page 2
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West Kootenay a dead zone for electric car stations
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SAM VAN SCHIE Nelson Star reporter
Martin and Pam Oets love new technology. The latest iPad, the biggest flat screen TV — whenever something new comes along they want to try it. So when they heard a limited number of electric Smart cars would be released in Canada, they jumped on the opportunity to get one. They got their name on a list and waited a year for their number to come up, then finally last month they got word that their car was waiting for them at the Kelowna dealership. They just had to figure out how to get it home. The West Kootenay is essentially a dead zone for electric car charging stations. There’s one at Wing Creek Resort in Kaslo and one in a public parking lot in Rossland, but none along the Crowsnest Highway east of Osoyoos until you hit Fernie. For the Oetses, the only way to get their car home was on a trailer. “We rented a U-Haul car mover and that’s how we got it here,” Martin explained. They now have a 220 volt charging system in their garage, which will power up the battery from a zero to 100 per cent charge in five hours. They plug
Martin and Pam Oets bought an electric Smart car, despite the current lack of public charging stations in the area. They hope West Kootenay cities will soon follow the rest of the province in becoming part of the “Green Highway” by adding enough charging station for electric car users to roam between regions. Sam Van Schie photo the car in overnight to have it ready for the day’s outings. Usually public charging stations are higher voltage and can have the battery ready for the road in 20 minutes to an hour. The car can go 140 km on a single charge, but that’s in ideal conditions when there’s no head wind or tricky driving conditions and only one person riding in it. “In reality, on Kootenay streets, we only expect to go about 100 km between charges,” Martin said. It’s enough for them to make trips into town and back no problem, but trying to make a round trip to Castlegar would be a gamble — at least for now.
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“We’re hopeful that the cities in this area will get chargers and eventually we’ll be able to go anywhere in our car,” Pam said. Last winter the province announced a plan to link BC into the West Coast Green Highway, which means adding fast charging stations for electric cars every 60 to 80 kilometres along major routes heading towards the US border, where they join into a network continuing all the way to California. Installations are happening throughout Vancouver Island, the lower mainland, Fraser Valley and Okanagan. There are also government incentives available to electric car buyers.
The Oetses received a $5,000 rebate on their car and $500 off the charging system. All told the vehicle cost them around $26,000 after taxes. They knew they were taking a risk when they bought it, but they wanted to encourage the proliferation of the technology. They’ve visited places like Amsterdam where electric cars and charging stations are everywhere and believe it’s time our country got with the times. “It’s easy for governments to say they don’t need to invest in electric car charging stations because nobody drives an electric car. Now we have one Continued on Page 3
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